A comedic novel set in Washington, DC, at a literary nonprofit? I’m in! Today I’m excited to feature The Literati, by Susan Coll. Published in 2025, this novel is an adorable romp in which the protagonist encounters no end of wild and crazy problems and somehow manages to not lose her mind.
I met Susan at a book launch event for The Literati held at Wonderland Books, a new indie bookstore in Bethesda, Maryland. I had heard of her because she was slated to lead a workshop at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival, which occurred last weekend. Susan has a calm and collected demeanor (which makes me envious as a person who’s a little too high-strung for her own good). She is a good speaker and listener—and an exceptional writer.
Sometimes as a reader I want solutions to the world’s problems, and other times I want to relax and laugh. The Literati is for the latter times. When the absurdity of the modern world becomes too great, you want to stretch back into silliness. You want to ride a happy-go-lucky roller coaster that you’re pretty sure is going to end up okay in the end. That’s what The Literati can do for you.
Here’s an example of how humorous this novel is. And note that comedy rears its ridiculous head repeatedly throughout this novel, making me laugh out loud on numerous occasions, not just here:
The building in which the protagonist, Clemi, works includes “a therapist’s office and the office of a well-known divorce attorney. . . . The attorney was currently representing a senior conservative member of the US House of Representatives who had left his wife for a male intern. . . . Howard also told her that the divorce attorney sometimes refers her clients to the therapist down the hall, and the therapist sometimes refers his clients to the divorce attorney down the hall, adding that he—Howard, that is—finds this to be a little incestuous. He then made a crude gesture with his fingers, which she found both puzzling and gross, but she was uncertain as to whether it had to do with business ties between therapists and divorce attorneys, congressmen and interns, or more specifically family members engaging in sexual relations with one another, even though the latter was not specific to the situation at hand.”
Once you stop laughing, please enjoy the following author interview with Susan Coll.
LA: Clemi, the protagonist of The Literati, is delightful. She makes the reader notice the lighthearted, fun aspects of life. Throughout all her struggles, she never gets too bogged down and always bounces back. Did this character arise from something in your experience or worldview? Do you think we can learn a lesson from her about how to tackle challenges in a crazy world?
SC: Thank you! Clemi is young, naïve, and eager to please. She is also highly professional and honest to a fault—or at least she was before accepting her new job at WLNP. If you take a character with this sort of work ethic and plunge her into an absurdist work environment, you have a situation that is ripe for comedy. Although there is perhaps a lesson to be learned here about tackling challenges and bouncing back from adversity—things do work out okay for Clemi in the end—there might also be a lesson in knowing when to walk away from a bad situation! Fortunately, for Clemi’s sake, The Literati is offered up as a screwball comedy and not a primer in how to live one’s best life.
LA: You used to be the president of a literary nonprofit in DC. In what ways did that experience inform the writing of The Literati, and in what ways does the novel veer from reality?
SC: I tend to see the comedy in every situation; that is my natural way of experiencing and processing the world. There is very little in the book that is drawn from reality—the nonprofit that I was involved with was solvent, there was no AWOL executive director, board members took their roles seriously, and I never once saw a cat. That said, there were little things that bubbled up and occasionally captured my imagination.
LA: You are a USA Today bestselling author and have published eight novels. That’s amazing! Do you have advice for writers who wish for publishing success, but don’t know how to find it?
SC: Ha, my mindset is still that of someone struggling to get published. It was a challenge back when I first began writing many years ago, and each book has been its own new challenge. My best advice is to not give up, but also to be willing to revise and revise again, and also to listen to (and sometimes filter) the feedback that you receive. Also to write because you love to write—creating the work is the best part of publishing.
LA: The Literati seems to be unavailable in hardcover, though it is available as a paperback book, ebook, and audiobook, and in libraries with library binding. Do you have an insider’s perspective on why your publisher decided not to print a hardcover version? Is this a new trend in the publishing industry?
SC: There is a whole world of paperback original publishing these days; the cover price makes it more affordable for customers, and I assume that this also cuts production costs for publishers. I know that some of my bookseller friends applaud this trend—if that’s what it is—as it helps move books. I’ve been published in hardcover and paperback original and can’t say that it’s made much of a difference for me professionally.
LA: I understand you are currently working on another novel. Would you be willing to share a tidbit about your forthcoming novel?
SC: I am just finishing a draft of Word Salad, which is another literary comedy set in the same bookish world as Bookish People and The Literati. It features a not very bookish young woman who winds up working in a bookstore, charged with putting together an event for a public intellectual who shares a name with a certain root vegetable.
Featured in this post: The Literati by Susan Coll Buy it now
Learn more about Susan Coll: susancoll.com
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